Michael Gove: 'Corbyn has a blindspot for organised hatred of Jewish people'

Michael Gove has said Jeremy Corbyn has a blindspot when it comes to "organised hatred towards the Jewish" and he doesn't understand how offensive his actions are.

Corbyn has been criticised for going to a dinner organised by left-wing Jewish group Jewdas for Passover on Friday (March 30). Members of the Labour Party have recently been accused of anti-Semitism, however Jewdas claims these are just right-wing smears.

The environment secretary told Mike Graham and Katie Perrior: "He simply can’t appreciate how worrying his actions are and he simply doesn’t understand how offensive his associations are and he tries to say 'oh you know people are mixing up anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel'.

"Well yeah criticism of Israel as a country is legitimate in the same way that criticism of Britain or France or Russia is legitimate.

"But the way in which he associates with people who say Israel as a country shouldn’t exist just reinforces a single point which is that he is part of this problem.

"Unless and until he shows that he appreciates why his associations and why his support for people painting murals or posting racist stuff on Facebook, unless he shows that he actually wants to close this down and tackle the people in his party behaving in this way then the story won’t go away.

"The story isn’t an attempt to discredit him, the story reflects the fact that whatever else one may say about him, he simply has a blindspot when it comes towards organised hatred towards the Jewish people."